Preventive and therapeutic effects of sanguinarine chloride on sodium arsenite-induced liver damage in mice

Background Natural product sanguinarine chloride (SC) can significantly alleviate liver fibrosis and acute liver injury in mice, but whether it has a protective effect on mouse liver injury caused by sodium arsenite (SA) has not been studied.

Objective To verify if SC may present preventive and therapeutic effects on SA-induced liver injury in mice.

Methods A total of 140 SPF male Kunming mice were randomly divided into two sub-studies, which included a prevention sub-study and a treatment sub-study. In each sub-study, a blank group (normal saline), a model group (5 mg·kg⁻¹ SA), and a positive control group (11.375 mg·kg⁻¹ bicyclol and 182 mg·kg⁻¹ glutathione), as well as SC low, medium, and high dose groups (25, 50, and 100 mg·kg⁻¹) were arranged with 10 mice in each group. In the prevention sub-study, the blank group was given normal saline, the model group was given SA, and the other groups (the SC low, medium, and high dose groups and the positive control group) were given the corresponding treatment 30 min before gavage of SA, once a day, for 28 d. In the treatment sub-study, except for the blank group which was given normal saline, the other groups were given SA for 28 d, then the model group was given normal saline, and the other groups were given the corresponding treatment every day for 28 d. After the experiment, the mice were sacrificed to evaluate selected physiological and biochemical indicators in serum and liver tissue and to observe histopathological changes after HE staining.

Results In either sub-study of preventive effect or treatment effect: compared with the blank group, body weight, liver weight, liver coefficient, as well as serum alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin (TBIL), malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione peroxidase (GSH), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) among all SC groups were not significantly different (P>0.05); but compared with the model group, the SC groups showed increased body weight (P<0.01), decreased liver weight and liver coefficient (P<0.01), reduced ALT, AST, TBIL, and MDA (P<0.05 or P<0.01), and increased GSH and SOD with (P<0.05 or P<0.01) or without significance; compared with the positive control group, no differences were found in the above indicators (P＞0.05). The result of histopathological evaluation showed that the SC groups had a clear liver lobule structure, neatly arranged hepatic cords, and less infiltration of inflammatory cells.

Conclusion SC has both preventive and therapeutic effects on SA-induced liver injury in mice.